Leading 3D models marketplace CGTrader reached 1.5 million users in July 2018, a whopping 15-fold increase over the past four years, according to Dalia Lasaite, CEO and co-founder of the company.

CGTrader now includes over 680,000 3D models and serves verticals such as video, animation, IT, software, design, marketing, advertising, media, architecture, education and manufacturing. So far the marketplace has enabled users to download around 12 million 3D files.

On CGTrader, 3D artists, design studios, and other professionals and businesses share and sell their models. Customers can choose from the huge range of models that can be used in projects to cut development time and save on valuable resources. In addition, customers can hire designers for custom jobs.

The company attributes its rapid growth to the cooperative and open nature of the global design community combined with the proprietary technology on its site. Users can share tutorials, feedback and discuss the latest industry developments. Motivated to impress others with their work and make additional income in the process, designers have already uploaded over 680,000 3D models on CGTrader. More than 100 Fortune 500 companies are among users, including giants such as Microsoft, Adobe and Autodesk.

The emergence of online marketplaces has also led to a sharp drop in price, making 3D models far more affordable. Filmmakers, early adopters of 3D technology, can now create full length animated movies for $20,000 to $100,000. Computer graphics no longer requires multi-million-dollar budgets.

The massive growth in demand is being felt globally and having a huge impact on 3D marketplaces like CGTrader that enable customers to buy 3D models from professional designers. Last year, designers from 144 countries uploaded 3D models that were used by customers from 184 countries – with the U.S., UK, Germany, and France contributing the greatest share of revenue. Topping the list of countries where designers came from were Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, U.S., India and China.

“3D is the next wave of content and in the coming years will come into widespread use, replacing apps that interact with a flat screen in 2D,” predicts Dalia Lasaite, CGTrader CEO. She adds that the number of professional designers is growing rapidly as it becomes easier to create and use 3D models. Technologies such as spatial computing, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and WebGL are spearheading the change.

“There is a growing trend of 3D expanding beyond traditional sectors like filmmaking, video games and architecture into whole new fields,” notes CEO Lasaite. Surgeon training in virtual reality or training AI visual recognition systems in 3D simulations are just a few new uses. In the e-commerce sector, online shops are providing 360-degree views of their products and have started using 3D models. In the augmented reality space, mobile AR apps, including those created by Snapchat and Facebook among others, are becoming more popular and increasingly use 3D models. The potential is endless, according to Lasaite.

CGTrader was founded in 2011 in Vilnius, Lithuania, and was the brainchild of the COO Marius Kalytis, who owned an architectural visualization studio in Lithuania and decided to turn his long-time hobby of making 3D models into a business. CGTrader CEO Dalia Lasaite, a serial entrepreneur, joined the company in 2013 as co-founder following the first funding round by Practica Capital.

CGTrader is backed by investors such as Intel Capital, Practica Capital and Karma Ventures. The company won the Deloitte CEE Fast 50 Rising Star award last October and was nominated among the top scale-up companies in the Digital Top 50 Awards, organized by Google, McKinsey & Co. and Rocket Internet. CGTrader currently has around 50 employees, most of them software engineers and designers.

In May 2016, the Hundert, a Berlin-based startup publication, named Dalia Lasaite as one of Top 100 European female entrepreneurs.

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